


I Need A Hero

by bardy_boi (clockworkgirl221)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 15:18:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8758114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworkgirl221/pseuds/bardy_boi
Summary: Gabriel sends his (now adult) son to a secluded valley for his safekeeping after a particularly nasty akuma ravages Paris.orAdrien knows Ladybug can take care of things alone, Nino’s ecstatic to be on a freaking FARM with freaking GOATS, and Sebastian just wants to know why there’s a man in a catsuit in the tree next to his house muttering into a shiny silver staff. Slight crack. Future!AU.Spoilers for Sebastian's heart events in Stardew Valley and the bulk of Season 1 of Miraculous Ladybug.





	1. PART ONE

**Author's Note:**

> This is just an excuse to write out some headcanons for both Miraculous Ladybug and Stardew Valley. No harm is intended! My mind often works in crossovers, and this one just stuck out as a big ol’ story instead of a little tiny idea. I have created a monster.
> 
> Anyway, just, suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. I worked my ass on this pile of shit.

It was rather unfair, actually.

But Gabriel Agreste had no idea that his own son was Chat Noir and had been elsewhere when the Akuma had hit the Eiffel Tower, bringing it down on the Agreste Mansion below, instead of in the house, where Gabriel had thought his son and best employee to be. Ladybug was of course freaking out about Adrien, but once her Lucky Charm was distributed through the area the mansion was whole again, and the Eiffel Tower was standing tall and proud once more, she seemed to calm down a little. Chat Noir only smiled at Ladybug’s worry, knowing something she didn’t.

But Gabriel wouldn’t forget what happened, and freaked out, buying the tickets to the most secluded place he could.

Nathalie was the one who suggested Adrien’s friend Nino come along for the ride. Adrien was thankful for that.

So here he was, his best friend and he being picked up at the bus station by the mayor of Pelican Town and the local carpenter.

At least Adrien and Nino spoke almost perfect English… and if they didn’t, they would soon learn how to perfect it.

“I was surprised that Veronique had a cousin in Paris, of all places,” Lewis told the two boys as he grabbed one of their bags. Nathalie had thought in advance to send a few things over to Adrien’s father’s cousin’s farmhouse just outside Pelican Town.

“I wasn’t aware that Paris even  _ had _ a supervillain,” Robin, the carpenter, added. “Veronique would be here, by the way, but she’s been detained by the Cindersnap Forest. Foraging, no doubt.”

Adrien and Nino listened quietly as they all walked from the bus station to Kittenpaw Farm, which was blooming in the Spring air. Lewis and Robin helped the boys into the farmhouse. It looked like Veronique would be taking the couch, while the boys took the one bedroom at the back. A small orange cat was sleeping near the fireplace, and Adrien smiled as Plagg sniffed at him from a place in the boy’s pocket when Adrien knelt down to let the cat sniff his hand.

“The cat’s name is Felix,” Robin called from the kitchen. “Now, Veronique says she’s slept on worse things than a couch in her day, though I told her I could build her an extra bed.”

Adrien came out of the bedroom. “Thank you,” he said, taking the woman’s hands. “I’m sorry we’ve come and burdened you all.”

“Nonsense, young man,” Lewis said. “You’re no burden to us, nor to your cousin. Ver is a bit dotty, so she might not even know you’re here.”

“So don’t be afraid to come see us up the mountain,” Robin added, frowning. “Ver is nice enough to let you stay, but I know she works rather hard…”

“She’s just like my dad, then,” Adrien replied. “I have Nino, though. He can work anywhere, and Father says he’ll send money every month to me…”

Robin nodded, “Still. If you want to have a family meal, you can always come to ours.”

She took one last look around the house before going outside of it. Lewis gave the two young men a look. “Go around and say hello to everyone. They’ve been pretty excited for your arrival.”

With that, he left.

Nino looked through the fridge, reverting back to his native French, “I am so psyched, man.”

Adrien laughed, “Two city boys, living it up in the country.”

He worried about Paris, though. His father wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Adrien, still living under his father’s roof, and working for his father’s company had no say in anything. He was taken out of University (he was only going to have something to do during the day, anyway), and Nino, bless his heart, wasn’t taken from anywhere. Adrien worried about Ladybug, but had to remind himself that she could take care of herself. He just wished he knew her secret identity. Then he could call her or something.

But Adrien had taken his ring and Plagg, and even if Stardew Valley was a quiet place with no chance for any super villains, he could use the communication device in his staff to contact Ladybug if he so wished… But he’d have to wait for Nino and Veronique to fall asleep tonight before he could pull that off.

“Shall we go into town and say hello?” he asked of his friend.

Nino shut the fridge, “I wanna see the goats first.”

Adrien laughed. Nino had been talking nonstop about meeting his cousin’s two goats, Adelaide and Ashley, for days since he learned he was going to Stardew Valley with Adrien.

“What about the cows, chickens, pigs, ducks  _ and  _ rabbits, man?” he asked.

“Well… yeah, but… come on. Frickin’ GOATS, dude!” Nino said. “They have weird, reverse cat-eyes and they’re super fucking soft!”

Adrien laughed. “All right. Let’s go see the goats.”

 

Nino was still talking about them when the two young men walked into town.

“God, the Internet wasn’t kidding when they said goats were so fucking soft!” Nino said, blowing bubbles. 

Adrien remembered his friend’s akumatization with weird fondness, missing his mansion under the Eiffel Tower and his old school and Ladybug and Paris. He sighed, laughing at his friend.

“I didn’t know rabbits could produce wool, either,” Nino said.

They met a few people in town: Caroline and her daughter Abigail, Jodi, Sam, Vincent, Penny and Jas. They visited Gunther at the library, and Clint in the blacksmith. (“A blacksmith, Adrien!” Nino hissed at the blond excitedly.)

Sam and Nino hit it off talking about music for a bit, Nino about his DJing equipment back at the farm, and how he could still mix stuff on just his laptop, though he might send away for his equipment in a few weeks, and Sam expressing interest in creating a band with his buddy Sebastian.

“Have you met Sebastian yet?” Sam asked the two.

Adrien shook his head while Nino used his immaculate English to reply, “No.”

Sam grinned, “He’s not down here a lot. He lives in his mom’s basement in the mountains.”

_ Mountains…  _ “His mother isn’t Robin, by any chance?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah! You met her already? She’s a really nice lady,” Sam gushed. “Yeah, Seb’s Robin’s kid.”

Sam showed them all over town, introducing them to everybody. It was a Friday night, actually, so Sam lead the two Frenchmen into the saloon and introduced them to Leah, Gus, Emily, Marnie, and Pierre. In the back room, Abigail, Sam, and a third young man started talking and laughing together. Sam introduced Adrien and Nino to Sebastian, who became rather quiet.

“So, what’s Paris like?” Abigail asked. “I heard a super villain attacked and that’s why you’re here…”

“God, it sounds like a graphic novel you let me borrow, Seb,” Sam told his rather quiet friend.

“Paris was always being attacked by super villains,” Nino said. “She’s still protected by Ladybug and Chat Noir, though, and they’ve got a way to erase all the damage done by the Hawkmoth.” He seemed pretty proud of that, which made Adrien smile.

“Wow…” Abigail sat at the edge of her seat. “That’s so cool! What’s Ladybug like?”

Nino laughed, gesturing with both hands to Adrien. “He was her number 1 fan back in school. He can probably tell you more than I can…”

Adrien grinned, then launched into stories of Ladybug and Chat Noir, and Nino even showed them back episodes of Alya’s Ladyblog, which continued to report on Ladybug (and Chat Noir’s) exploits.

Abigail’s eyes glazed over in wonder, and even Sam and Sebastian were enthralled by the masked heroes and the akumatized civilians. By the end of the night, Ladybug had three new, international fans, and the two French boys had invitations to game night the following night in Sebastian’s basement.

“The farm is close to my house, I’ll come pick you guys up,” Sam said as the two other boys pulled on their coats to make their way back to their new home.

“Thanks!” Adrien called back, putting his hand up to make the lazy man’s wave by not waving at all.

 

Nino had finally fallen asleep beside him.

Adrien had learned early on that Nino was a heavy sleeper. So Adrien could slip out of bed without the other boy waking up and making Adrien come up with an excuse to why he was a creeping out of bed.

Veronique was asleep, too, on her lumpy-looking couch. She had been just going to bed when the boys arrived to their new home. She had stuck out her hand for them to shake, her light skin covered in dirt. When the blonde had realized how dirty she was, she simply rubbed both hands on her dirty overalls and tried again. Adrien politely shook her hand, while Nino raved about her goats. Veronique smiled and warned the two boys that as soon as her head hit the pillow most nights, she was out like a light. 

It was 11pm by the time the entire household fell asleep. Adrien had merely closed his eyes, trying to even his breath to feign sleep. Soon Nino had drifted off, and Adrien heard the sounds of the night.

Finally Adrien felt safe enough to walk past his cousin and out the front door, Plagg floating sleepily behind him.

“Plagg, transforme moi,” Adrien muttered under his breath.

Only an owl witnessed Adrien’s transformation.

 

He felt silly bounding across the treetops instead of buildings that night under a silver moon. But he wanted a little privacy when he contacted his partner. He bounded past a nice house, realizing that he had come upon the mountain that Sam had mentioned. A little ways away there was a lake where the river started up. There was a pine tree close by the water, and Chat bounded onto one of its branches. The air was silent, save for the water lapping at the shore.

Chat caught his breath before taking out his staff from its place at his back.

He suddenly realized Ladybug would be able to figure out who Chat Noir really was if he called her from Stardew Valley. They still didn’t know each other’s civilian identities, and Ladybug still hadn’t said anything about allowing the other knowing or figuring it out.

Chat Noir missed her, though. He wanted to talk to her at least once more.

He began fiddling with his staff for a moment, trying to disconnect the video. Finally, he figured it out and called her up, sans video.

“Chat?”

It was wonderful to hear her voice.

He had gotten over his teenaged crush on her a few years before. She had spurned him too many times, so he continued to admire her strength and brilliance, but as a loyal partner instead of a lovesick fool. He was still extremely fond of her.

They continued not to know each other’s true identity, either.

Adrien soon started dating Marinette from his class. She had been so blushy when she asked him out, and it was Alya who told him how long the other girl had been crushing on him. He and Marinette dated all through grade school, but parted ways when she was accepted to fashion school. She wanted to focus on her career, and though they both were sad to part ways, Adrien had to agree with her reasoning for the split. They still talked every once in awhile.

But Ladybug was Adrien’s true friend, after Nino. They had been through tough times together, and that created a bond even he and Nino didn’t have.

“It’s so nice to hear your voice, my lady.”

“Oh, Chat,” Ladybug seemed on the verge of tears. “It’s 5 in the morning.”

“Wow, you’re up early.”

“Patrol ran long.”

“Akuma?”

“... No. I tried going to bed around 12 and… I don’t know. I’m glad you called.”

“Yeah? Sorry I can’t turn the video on. It could compromise my location.”

Chat Noir had told his partner some bullshit story about Fu making him go on some secret mission, and though of course Ladybug was suspicious at first, when Chat Noir obviously hadn’t shown up for a few nights (the Agreste Mansion had been on lockdown a couple days before he and Nino were due to leave), she contacted Fu who contacted Adrien, telling the young model that his mentor lied for him.

Chat Noir hated lying to Ladybug.

“Are you alright, Chat?”

“Yeah… I’m not sure if I can keep in contact with you very regularly…”

“Don’t worry about it. Just… stay safe. And come back soon. Your ‘cataclysm’ is sorely missed.  And your company.”

She yawned. Adrien winced behind his mask. 

“Go to bed, my lady.”

“I think, now that we’ve spoken, I can do that.”

Adrien bit his lip. “Good night, Ladybug.”

“Good morning, Chat Noir.”

Chat pressed the end button, chuckling to himself. He looked out over the lake, breathing in the fresh mountain air.

“Um.” A familiar voice said from beneath Chat’s tree. “Excuse me?”

Chat Noir’s leather ears shot up, and he glanced down into the dark eyes of Sebastian, resident emo kid of Pelican Town. The kid had thrown on his trademark black hoodie over a pair of black sweatpants. His hands were shoved into the front pockets of the hoodie.

“Uh, hi,” Chat Noir replied, losing his trademark smoothness for a tight second before finding it again as he dropped from the branch. “Don’t mind me. I’m just a superhero who's gotten a bit lost…” He smirked at Sebastian, “The company isn’t half bad, though.”

Sebastian’s confused face got even more confused, if that was possible. “Um… that’s… uh. Vous parlez francais, Monsieur Minou…”

Shit.

Adrien panicked behind the mask, though Chat Noir’s features hardly changed.

“Adrien?” Sebastian asked, his head coming forward in his confusion.

“No, I’m the famous Parisian superhero, Chat Noir!” Chat said in English, trying desperately to save face. Not that Sebastian would tell on him to Hawk Moth or anything, but Pelican Town could easily fall into danger if too many people knew who he was, and Adrien did not want to meet any more of his father’s distant cousins if he had to move again…

Sebastian was a bit unamused by the whole thing, and looked off to the side. “Listen, Adrien, or Chat Noir, or whatever. I’ve read all the superhero comics, and I know… a bit… about Ladybug and Chat Noir from your own lips… so… I won’t tell anyone. I just want to know why you were muttering into your staff just now.”

Chat Noir wasn’t sure he could trust Sebastian with his true identity, but the Pelican Town native had figured it out for some strange and unexplainable reason for himself, so Adrien felt it was a moot point to argue any further.

“You… promise you won’t tell anyone here in Pelican Town?” he asked, fiddling with the ring on his finger.

Sebastian looked at him. “Mom recently donated all my comics, but I remember every story. Most superheroes have a secret identity, but the secret identity is often… for the safety of the hero, right?”

Chat Noir nodded. “Yeah.”

“Your father made you come here for your safety too. What about Ladybug?”

“She’s strong enough to take on akumas on her own.”

“Does she know who you really are?”

“No. I told her I was on a secret mission,” Chat told the dark-haired man.

Sebastian nodded, once more looking away from the black-clad superhero. “So Ladybug doesn’t have any other way of contacting you outside… your communication devices.”

Chat nodded.

They were silent for a long while. Sebastian looked up into the mountain sky and through the pine trees around them. Finally, he looked back at the Parisian. “Why did you bring that costume with you here?”

Chat Noir looked at his arms, as if seeing the suit for the first time. “Uh. I don’t really… bring it with me. Not the whole thing, at least.”

Sebastian stared at him, and Chat felt compelled to explain himself: “Uh. Part of my costume follows me, so to speak, from one identity to the other. It’s… some kind of magic that lets me, uh, transform into the suit and the powers and stuff. Not the other way around. Not like… um… Superman having all his powers still as Clark Kent and just putting on the suit to become Superman… or something like that.”

Sebastian frowned. “That sounds… like a magical girl.”

Chat Noir chuckled, “Yeah.... think of it as a hybrid of magical girl and superhero thing. Ladybug is the same way, as are a couple others that we know of around the world…”

Sebastian gawked, “There are other magical superheroes in the world?”

Chat Noir shrugged. “In Europe, at least. And Ladybug and Chat Noir have been seen throughout history. I’m just one in the line of many historical Chats in the world, according to my master.”

Sebastian’s eyes shined, “Wow. So there might even be real superheroes here, too. In the City or even… here in Pelican Town.”

Chat Noir shrugged, “Well, I’m here, at least.”

Sebastian looked the cat-eyed hero up and down, “So… why haven’t you de-transformed or whatever. It’s just me here. Maru should have gone to bed by now, and mom and Demetrius are definitely asleep.”

“Habit,” Chat replied. “At night, Ladybug and I patrol Paris.”

Sebastian nodded in understanding, but Chat tapped the ring on his finger and Plagg flew out.

“I can’t believe you, Adrien,” Plagg muttered, diving into Adrien’s sweatpants’ pocket.

Sebastian stepped back when the black cat thing spoke. “What… is that?”

Adrien plunged his hand into his pocket and brought out Plagg. He wasn’t sure why he was telling Sebastian anything at this point: why he hadn’t just run off into the night. But Plagg had been the one to admonish him about not sticking around to see Ladybug’s identity all those years ago when Chat Noir and Ladybug had just started, so Plagg wouldn’t admonish him for coming out, so to speak, to one lowly rural citizen this far from Paris and Hawk Moth. Plus… it was nice that someone else knew who he was. Nino didn’t even know, and they had been friends for a long time. Adrien just guessed he was sick and tired of Chat Noir being a big old secret, and he felt safe here in sleepy Pelican Town, especially with the nerdy emo kid in front of him.

“This is Plagg. He’s a kwami. He’s what allows me to be Chat Noir,” Adrien replied.

Sebastian glanced down at the grumpy little cat spirit. Plagg looked up at the other male fleetingly before rolling over in Adrien’s palm to glare up at the Miraculous holder. “There better be some camembert waiting for me when we get home.”

Sebastian blinked, then burst out laughing, “Oh Yoba! He talks!”

Plagg decidedly ignored him.

“The camembert will probably be fresh out here,” Adrien told the spirit in his native French. Then he blinked, looking up at Sebastian as he remembered something from earlier. “Sebastian, parlez-vous francais?”

Sebastian blinked, and nodded slowly, “Un peu, monsieur. J’ai appris… a l’ecole. Je ne me souviens pas beaucoup…”

Adrien’s face brightened, and he smiled winningly as he answered the dark-haired boy in English, “Still.” Then his face darkened, “Did you understand any of my phonecall to Ladybug?”

“Just the English you used,” Sebastian replied quickly, stepping another step back from Adrien and the growling Plagg. “‘My lady’?”

Adrien smiled. “We weren’t trading secrets, Sebastian. I just… wanted to hear her voice. Ladybug is dear to me.”

Sebastian bit his lip. “Are you… close?”

Adrien looked up at Sebastian, trying to see through him. “We’re pretty close. When I was younger and more foolish, I wanted to possess her, to know her true identity. But I let that go soon enough. I even found a civilian girlfriend for a time. But we broke up when she went to a different University from me and I continued to work on my own career.”

Sebastian nodded, “And yet you two remain close.”

“She’s my partner, and my best friend. I love her still, just differently,” Adrien replied. He realized he sounded a lot like Chat Noir, though he was without the mask and the suit. “But enough about me. What are  _ you _ doing out at this time of night?”

Sebastian thought for the longest moment, fidgeting slightly as the spotlight turned over onto him. “I… heard things in the night. I came to investigate.”

“What are you doing up so late?” Adrien asked.

Sebastian looked at his feet, following a blade of grass at it waved languidly in the midnight breeze. “Just… couldn’t sleep. That’s all.” He looked up passed Adrien at his house. “I… should go.”

He pushed passed Adrien toward his house. Adrien thought to call out after him, but decided against it. Sebastian seemed like a person who needed time to come out of his shell. Adrien was reminded of Marinette, who stuttered and often asked him to stay in with her instead of them going out.

_ Why am I thinking of Sebastian in comparison to  _ Marinette? Adrien suddenly thought as he made his way up the hill and back toward the farmhouse.

 

Sam wasn’t very prompt when he picked Nino and Adrien up from the farmhouse the next day.

Veronique had gone out to forage again, though Adrien heard her muttering something about nature spirits and the rundown community center as she left the house that morning.

Sam texted Nino at about 8:30 in the afternoon that he was “on his way” and it took him until 12 to finally knock on the farmhouse door. Nino was just happy to see Sam.  _ Just like a puppy _ , Adrien found himself thinking as he smiled. He walked a little behind the two musicians as they talked about song ideas and different genres Sam and Sebastian could try.

“I just need a drummer,” Sam lamented as they went down the steps toward Sebastian’s front door.

Adrien found himself looking over at the tree Sebastian had found him in the night before. A blush crept unwillingly onto the secret superhero’s cheeks.

Sam just opened the door to the house when they reached it without knocking. He waved to Robin who was sitting at a till of all things before leading the two Frenchmen down the stairs into the basement. Adrien, at least, waved back at her and smiled before he disappeared behind Sam and Nino.

Abigail was already there, sitting on the floor near the low table, where boxes of board games sat. Sebastian sat on one of the low chairs, his face partly obscured by the stack of boxes.

Sam took a seat on the floor across from Abby, gesturing to the last two empty chairs. Nino took one, and Adrien looked a bit lost before he sat down in the other.

“Newbies’ choice,” Abby sing-songed.

“Call it, Adrien,” Nino said, looking at the the stack of game boxes like it might eat him at any moment.

Adrien scanned the boxes, trying to figure out which one of them he knew. Nearly all of them were obscure, Monopoly or…

“You have Cleopatra?” Adrien asked, looking across the table at Sebastian.

Sebastian raised one eyebrow, “You know about it?”

Adrien looked back at the box, pulling it carefully from the stack like a Jenga piece. “Alya got it after the whole Le Pharoan thing blew over.”

“I remember that!” Nino said. “That girl has a strange sense of humor. She was supposed to be sacrificed and everything, and she comes into school a few days later holding this stupid game and laughing.”

“She was giddy about meeting Ladybug and Chat Noir, and then finding out about Ladybug and Chat Noir’s past incarnation… or the evidence that there had been a Ladybug in ancient Egypt,” Adrien replied, glancing at Sebastian. They did have that little secret between them, after all.

“Oh, your friend Alya is so lucky,” Abby said, blowing a strand of her blue hair out of her face. “You all are. You’ve met actual  _ superheroes _ .”

Sebastian found something very interesting at his feet. 

Adrien smiled, “I guess we are. It’s such a regular occurrence that I’ve forgotten how cool it actually is.”

“Not me, dude,” Nino replied. “It is still very cool. And I kind of miss having Ladybug and Chat Noir around here in the Valley. No offense.”

“None taken,” said Sam and Abby in tandem.

They set up and played the game, then moved on from it to others, including what Adrien was actually good at: video games. The Valley kids bonded more with the French kids over shared fighting games and co-op playthroughs. Some of the games Adrien hadn’t touched since he and Marinette used to play together on date nights back in grade school.

But Adrien kept looking over at Sebastian, always excited to play co-op with him or even against him. They all were having such a great time, but Adrien saw something else behind Sebastian’s eyes than the joy he saw behind Sam’s and Abby’s. 

Adrien remembered all the things Sam told him about Sebastian, and tried to figure out what was particularly concerning the dark-haired boy.

Evening set in, and Sam and Abby knew when to say their goodbyes. Nino and Adrien followed the other two out, though Adrien lingered behind to see Sebastian in the middle of his room, looking dejectedly at the mess the five of them had collectively wrought in his room. It seemed, to Adrien, at least, that Sebastian was steeling himself for a return to some dark reality.

Or maybe that was just Chat Noir’s thought process after so many years as a superhero against a notorious supervillain.

But citizens had their own villains, too, lurking behind them in the shadows…

 

A few days passed relatively slowly for the French boys. They mostly stuck to the farm and Cindersnap Forest, exploring Marnie’s farm, just missing Leah on her way to her own errands, and even meeting the Wizard that lived in the tower in the western area of Cindersnap.

“Well, nice to know this place has its own magic,” Nino said. “France and Europe can’t have all the fun, I mean.”

Adrien didn’t go out again in his Chat Noir getup in the evenings. He did go on solitary walks up the mountain, and was surprised to find Sebastian out smoking a cigarette by the lake where he had met Chat Noir pretty regularly over the next few days.

He tried not to think of why he thought of the dark-haired boy so often.

But Monday night he lay awake thinking about why he did. Perhaps because Adrien had shared a secret with Sebastian, or was Sebastian’s darkness something Adrien was curious about, and that old adage about curiosity killing the cat--or in this case,  _ le chat _ ?

So on Tuesday, while Nino went to hang out with Sam by the river, Adrien walked up to the mountain in the late morning air and made his way to Sebastian’s house.

“Good morning, Adrien!” Robin said from her till. “Sebastian should be up and about. I saw him come out of his room for breakfast about thirty minutes ago, anyway.”

“Thanks, Robin,” Adrien said, and tiptoed down the steps before knocking on the door.

“I’m working!” Sebastian called, his voice gravelly from sleep.

“It’s Adrien.”

There was some muttering and sounds of wood on wood before Sebastian opened the door for the blond. Sebastian was wearing a short sleeve black shirt and his black sweats. “Um. Hi.”

“May I come in?” Adrien asked, “Or do you want me to come back later when you’re done… working?”

Sebastian looked behind him about the room before he stepped back from the door. Adrien stepped in. The floor was still a mess, though most of the games and gaming gear had been put away on Sebastian’s shelf. Sebastian stood in the middle of the room, looking rather sheepish.

“I’m a freelance programmer,” he said after a long moment of silence.

“I’m a model,” Adrien replied with a lopsided, Chat Noir-esque smirk.

“What?” Sebastian asked, suddenly breathless.

“I work too. Or I did,” Adrien replied.

“No,” Sebastian said, his voice growing tiny. He looked askance at the grey bricks of his wall. “Your… voice when you said you’d come back if I was working… it expressed… confusion. I… work from home.”

Adrien crooked his head, “Assuming makes an ass of you and me...”

“What?” Sebastian asked.

“If you spell the word assume, it’s A-S-S, ass, U-M-E, u and me,” Adrien said, thinking he had said the punchline wrong: he had  _ just  _ heard this joke earlier that day, and now he was messing it up.

“Oh, um,” Sebastian stuttered, “I’ve done it again… I know sometimes I project what I feel onto others--”

“Whoa!” Adrien said, putting his hands up. “I’m… well, I’m  _ trying _ to tease you.”

“Oh.”

“Good-natured teasing,” Adrien added, noticing as all the breath seemed to leave the other male behind. “Sorry. I’m a bit nervous. I’ll go.”

“Wait,” Sebastian said. “No. I’ve gone and screwed everything up. Can we start over?”

Adrien gave him a lopsided smile, and Sebastian returned it, a faint blush on his face. “Yes please,” the French model replied. “How are you, Sebastian?”

“Fine,” Sebastian replied, looking around the room. “Do you… want to sit down?”

Adrien took a seat at the low table, and, instead of joining him, Sebastian sat on the floor cross-legged. Adrien decided that pointing this out was a bad idea, and so folded his hands into his lap. “What are you working on?”

“A… a computer program… for a client.”

Adrien nodded. “Very interesting. How’d you get into computer programming?”

Sebastian shrugged, “I grew up with computers. I got good at HTML and CSS and general computer coding so I thought I’d start doing freelance programs for people over the Internet. There wasn’t much else I had the skills to do.”

Adrien nodded, “Best do what you’re good at, right?”

Sebastian nodded. Then, looking up at Adrien from under his fringe, said, “I knew you were a model.”

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he found himself flushing, “Oh? Did your research, didn’t you.”

Sebastian nodded, “Y-Yeah. Right after I left you that first evening. How does a spoiled rich model become a flirtatious hero in a catsuit?”

“Fate or something,” Adrien replied. It was his turn to shrug. “Ladybug always needs a Chat Noir, and vice versa.”

There was a prolonged silence between them. Then:

“You must miss her terribly.”

Adrien nodded, “I do.”

“Is your relationship with her some kind of… star-crossed lover thing or something over time and distance and all that?” Sebastian asked.

Adrien shrugged, “I don’t know. Ladybug and Chat Noir, from my understanding, will always be bound by loyalty and love, but the kind of love they share can vary from lifetime to lifetime. My master mentioned a lifetime where Ladybug and Chat Noir were siblings, and one lifetime they were cousins, so, I guess it varies from life to life.”

Sebastian looked at his hands, which were in his lap. “That’s… fascinating.”

Adrien shrugged again.

Another long silence engulfed them. Then Adrien stood up, “I should let you get back to work.”

Sebastian stood up also. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

Adrien looked at him, blushing, “Um, what?”

Sebastian blushed, putting his hand on his computer desk. “Oh, um. It’s the Flower Dance tomorrow. Everyone is invited to a spot just west of that weird tower to watch uh, the bachelors and bachelorettes dance some, ancient fertility ritual or something. Veronique should be going…”

Adrien watched Sebastian fidget for a moment before he nodded. “Veronique hasn’t said anything, but she may have forgotten to.”

“You don’t have to come,” Sebastian said, as if he was trying to save face. “It’s… it’s an embarrassing tradition.”

Adrien shrugged, “I am a guest here. I might as well see all the fruits of the Valley while I’m here.” He winked exaggeratedly at Sebastian and then left, Sebastian stuttering behind him. 

Adrien smirked as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked out of the mountain cabin.

 

Nino and Adrien dutifully followed Veronique down deep into Cindersnap Forest the next day. The farmer was wearing her normal overalls, though they were cleaner at least. Adrien and Nino had no idea what to wear, so they wound up wearing their normal attire, though Nino tried to slick his hair back before his signature hat messed with it again.

The festival was in full swing when they arrived. The townspeople had been waiting for Veronique to come along, apparently, because they all crowded her until she went up to Lewis.

“She never asks any of the bachelors or bachelorettes to dance,” one woman, Sam’s mom, Jodi, said to her friend.

Adrien and Nino felt oddly out of place. As bachelors themselves, they didn’t know any of the bachelorettes well enough to ask them to dance. So as Mayor Lewis called the unmarried ladies and gentlemen together, Adrien and Nino stood alongside Veronique and watched as the others all coupled up: Alex and Haley, Penny and Sam, Emily and Shane, Maru and Dr. Harvey, Elliot and Leah, and in the middle of it all, Abigail and Sebastian. They all looked so cute in their blue tuxedos and white dresses, and Adrien had to hide a small smile behind his hand.

“Wanna dance, man?” Nino asked as a joke before the music started.

Adrien sorely wanted to take up the other in his offer, but said nothing, just grinned conspiratorially at him.

Once the dance was done, many of the bachelors and bachelorettes rushed to the bushes to change back into their informal wear, while the other townsfolk flocked the food tables. Adrien and Nino made small talk as best they could, answering questions about Paris, and France, and whether Gus’s accent was all right when he tried to speak French to the both of them. Veronique left early to go forage and finish with the farm chores. Nino flocked to Sam, Abby, and Sebastian. And Adrien…

...just wanted to get away.

In his father’s employ, he had been to many functions much like the Flower Dance, where he was forced to make small talk. He wouldn’t go so far as to call himself an introvert, but sometimes Adrien would want to get away from all the stuffy grown-ups. 

Plagg was resting happily in Adrien’s pants pocket with some filched camembert, so Adrien ducked out of the clearing and into the trees, making sure he got far away before yelling the words to transform him into Chat Noir…

 

“I got pictures of ‘em all before they all changed,” Nino gloated when he got home. 

Adrien had of course already been in the farmhouse after bounding tree by tree to get there hours earlier. He looked up from his book with a grin. “You did? Which ones?”

“All of them,” Nino said, flipping through the pictures of the dancing couples. 

He showed Adrien a picture of Sam and Penny. Adrien cooed at the picture. “Precious.”

“And Abby and Sebastian,” Nino said, revealing the picture.

Adrien found himself staring at the picture for a bit longer than he meant to.

“Earth to Adrien,” Nino said, waving his hand in front of his blond friend’s face.

Adrien shook his head, “Sorry.”

“Abby’s really pretty, isn’t she?” Nino asked, smirking knowingly. “She looks a bit like Marinette, doesn’t she? And she kicks your ass at fighting games, so there’s another similarity to your former lady love…”

“What?” Adrien’s eyes narrowed slightly at his friend in confusion.

Nino smiled, “It’s alright. Go for her. Who knows how long we’re going to be here? Might as well make it a fun time no matter what, right?”

It dawned on Adrien. And he blushed.

“Oh… are you… are you sure? I mean, she’s your type too.”

Nino shrugged, “Plenty of  fish, man. Did you see how many bachelorettes there were?”

Adrien gulped and nodded slightly. “I guess… you’re right.”

“Are you alright man?” Nino asked, frowning.

“Just fine. Hey, you want to go say hi to all the animals?” Adrien replied, getting up off the bed.

Nino’s eyes brightened, “Ah, my darling Adelaide and Ashley…”

“Maybe you should just stick to the goats and forget the bachelorettes,” Adrien teased.

“Shut up,” Nino shot back with a grin. “Last one to the barn has to call up Gus for a pizza!”

 

While Nino was ordering pizza from the Saloon, Adrien sent the picture of Sebastian and Abigail dancing to his phone. Nino wouldn’t exactly mind that Adrien was sending himself pictures from Nino’s phone, but Adrien just wanted that particular photo, and he felt self-conscious about asking for it.

After cleaning up dinner, Nino did some work on his laptop before heading off to bed. Adrien read his book in bed for the entirety of the evening, until he heard Veronique come in and flop herself on the couch in the living room.

Nino was already asleep beside him, the other boy breathing evenly. Adrien unlocked his phone, getting off the bed and sitting near the fireplace. Felix the cat came up to him, and Adrien idly pet the orange cat’s fur. He stared at the photo, enlarging it so only Sebastian was visible. Why couldn’t Adrien stop thinking about him?

And then, a memory:

The day after Le Dessinateur, seeing Nathanael in class after de-akumatizing him the night before, remembering how Chloe and Sabrina had made fun of him for drawing what was in his heart and making him become La Dessinateur.

What was in his heart? Marinette, and then Ladybug.

By all accounts he should have been jealous of Nathanael's crush on Ladybug, at least, but he had never known that part, until the next time Nathanael had been caught drawing in class, but by then, everyone loved Ladybug and Chat Noir, so it wasn’t a big deal. But Adrien was now remembering when he saw Nathanael in class, that Adrien had seen him in a new light: Nathanael had fought his akumatization so hard. He hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone, just get a little revenge on Chloe. There was something… sweet… in that. Not the revenge part, but afterwards: the date with Marinette, and especially trying to fight Hawkmoth. Adrien had thought nothing of the warm feelings in his gut when he saw Nathanael that day, and for a few days after. Soon the feelings just went away, but… they were similar to the ones Adrien felt for Sebastian right now…

And then later, with Copy Cat…

That stupid fight, Chat Noir against Chat Noir, when Theo had pinned him against the floor and had sat atop him. Chat Noir had had some rather uncomfortable feelings, though he remembered liking the contact.

He remembered warm feelings like the one’s he so briefly held for Nathanael, though, for his fencing instructor, and even for Nino in the very beginning of their friendship. He remembered the warm feelings for Ladybug, for Chloe, and Marinette, too.

Adrien put his head into his hands, suddenly confused. The warm feelings for these men had always faded after a time, but Adrien remembered having random thoughts about Nino when he was alone in his room a few days into his acquaintanceship with him, about Nathanael for the longest time after Le Dessinateur was gone, about Theo for a few nights after that fight. But then Marinette… she was the love of his life. He stopped thinking about Nathanael, at least, when she had asked him out.

He stopped  _ crushing _ on Nathanael.

Adrien sat up. Felix gave him the side-eye before swishing off to find someone who wasn’t having a sudden identity crisis.

Adrien was freaking out. He had no idea what was going on. He liked girls, but had had past crushes on boys, too, he had just figured out. His heart pounded when he thought of Nathanael again--whatever had happened to that boy after school anyway? But there was a slight fear. Had he ever truly loved Marinette, loved Ladybug? What if he had only been lying to himself, that he had actually been gay all along? That wasn’t fair to Marinette, at least.

Adrien knew he liked girls, he  _ knew  _ he did. He thought all the girls in Pelican Town were gorgeous, and would date anyone of them if they asked.

But… Sebastian.

Adrien wasn’t sure about the other boys in town: Sam was handsome, but forgetful. Shane smelled of alcohol a lot of the time. He didn’t really know Dr. Harvey that much, nor Elliot. Alex seemed like the typical jock, which wasn’t Adrien’s type at all…

Adrien breathed. Nathalie had taught him to breath deeply in and out before runway shows, so Adrien breathed now: he was as anxious as he had been when he had started runway shows at eleven or twelve. He had been photographed for years before that, but getting up in front of a crowd? Adrien still sometimes had panic attacks. 

As he breathed, his phone glowed in the firelight.  _ Music would help.  _ Adrien thought.

He opened up his phone and found his music, slipping idly through the songs as he reached for his headphones. In the A’s of his Artists, a name popped out at him, an artist Adrien hadn’t listened to since high school: one Alizee.

And the first song of hers that he really saw was simply called “Bi.”

He clicked on it.

There was a bouncy tune, and soon the lovely voice told him that it was all right whether you loved a man or a woman, in his native French:

_ “… Prejudices and phobias _ __   
_ We don’t need alibis, no _ __   
_ Without taboos, without whims _ __   
_ We are all of the same ilk, oh _ __   
_ That’s love _ __   
_ Always love, baby _ __   
_ Whichever, XY or bi _ _   
_ __ Today we are who we wish to be…”

_   
_ He breathed a slight sigh of relief. Music had always been his therapy of choice, ever since his mother sang to him when he was scared or sad as a child.

So his feelings for Marinette had been real. That was all that mattered. But now he had to face something a little strange for him: a crush on Sebastian.

A crush on Sebastian was inconvenient: Adrien could be called away back to Paris at any moment. He could forget about the dark-haired boy and go back to his life.

But he didn’t want to.

And he knew, deep down, that Gabriel would always fear for him: whether as his father or as his employer, Gabriel couldn’t live without knowing that Adrien was safe. So, as long as Hawkmoth was a threat, unless the supervillain calmed down for a long time, Adrien would not be going back to Paris any time soon.

But Sebastian was something else entirely, now. Adrien hardly saw the other boy, and when he did Adrien always messed something up. Adrien had to get to know Sebastian, to help the other boy out of his shell. Sebastian seemed to respond to kindness and honesty, which was how Adrien had won Marinette, come to think of it. 

Perhaps he would try that.


	2. PART TWO

Summer was just around the corner. 

Sunday night Adrien took his normal walk up the hill in the evening. When he came down the steps next to Robin’s mountain cabin, he noticed the garage was open.  _ Odd _ , Adrien thought as he tiptoed closer to the garage, expecting Robin to be working on a personal carpentry project or something.

He wasn’t expecting Sebastian… or the motorcycle.

Adrien felt his knees go weak.  _ Merde alors _ , the blond thought.

Sebastian was lying under the bike, wrench in hand, concentrating hard, his tongue sticking out as he tightened screw after screw. Sebastian slid out from under the machine when he heard Adrien approaching. “Oh. Hey, Adrien.”

“Hey, Sebastian,” Adrien said. “Is this yours?”

Sebastian’s face was covered in motor oil, and he had left his signature sweatshirt on the plant next to the front door to the house. Adrien decided to stare at the motorcycle so he wouldn’t freak the other boy out by staring at him and how deliciously disheveled he was.

Sebastian looked behind him, “Yeah. She needed an oil change.”

Adrien nodded, now at a loss for what to say next. He tried to imagine a time when he had flirted mercilessly with Ladybug, or had made Marinette laugh with a cheesy pun (she had  _ never _ laughed at Chat Noir’s, sadly), but nothing seemed to fit at a time like this. Boys couldn’t be  _ that _ vastly different from girls, could they?

“Sometimes I just ride out on my own with her,” Sebastian finally said, putting his hand on the blue chrome over the motorcycle's wheel. “When daily life gets tough, it can be just me and my girl here.”

Adrien sat down next to him, pulling his knees to his chest. “That’s how I feel about the mask. When things get bad, there’s always Chat Noir, and then Ladybug.” Adrien didn’t see Sebastian’s scowl at the heroine’s name.

Plagg peeked out of Adrien’s shirt pocket, rolling his eyes at the two of them before disappearing again.

“I discovered something online today,” Sebastian said, having watched Plagg. “In my research on Chat Noir and Ladybug I discovered a webcomic in French about the two of them.”

Adrien glanced up at the dark-haired male, intrigued, “Did you get the name of the artist?”

Sebastian looked out over the sleepy town below them, “Nathanael, I think. Nathanael Kurtzberg.”

Adrien smiled. “I went to school with him. He was La Dessinateur.”

Sebastian’s eyebrows shot up, “Oh. Well, his last update was a few years ago. I… didn’t look into his newer stuff, sorry.”

“Why would you?” Adrien purred, “You were only looking for facts on the great superhero Chat Noir, after all.”

Sebastian blushed, “Yeah.” Then, “Wait, are you purring?”

Adrien swallowed, “Uh, of course not. Why would I be able to purr?”

Sebastian gave him a withering look, which really was something… nice... after all the muttering and sad frowning the boy had been doing before. It made Adrien’s cheeks heat a little more than they had been. 

“Oh I don’t know,” Sebastian replied, “you tell me. You’re the magical cat boy.”

Adrien laughed, “As my fencing instructor says, ‘Touche.’”

The two of them sat together for a while in silence, watching the night deepen around them. Finally Sebastian stood up and extended his hand to Adrien, wiping the oil onto his jeans before offering it. Adrien tentatively allowed the other male to hoist him to his feet: Sebastian was stronger than he looked.

“I should close the garage,” Sebastian explained sheepishly. “And then I really need a smoke.”

Adrien nodded dumbly. Plagg scoffed from inside his pocket, throwing Adrien back into his reality. “I should feed the little beast. Veronique makes really good camembert.”

Sebastian laughed. Adrien wanted to bottle up the sound and then keep it selfishly for himself. 

“Alright,” Sebastian said, fishing in his pocket for his packet of cigarettes. “Later.”

“Later,” Adrien said, and made himself turn away from him. Then, one foot in front of the other, he floated back to Veronique’s farmhouse.

 

Adrien didn’t see Sebastian alone again until Maru’s birthday, which happened to also be before one of the big summer events, the Luau. The two talked on Fridays and most Saturdays, but Sam, Abigail, and Nino were often in the room with them. Even when Adrien went on his walks up to the mountain he found himself chickening out and, instead of approaching Sebastian to talk, he went and talked with Robin, instead. She was often between two trees, looking down on the town below most evenings. Adrien felt like such a creep when he did this, but he just got too nervous to approach Sebastian.

_ I guess this is how Marinette felt all those years ago… _ Adrien thought after retreating from the mountain that Tuesday night before Maru’s birthday.

There was a letter waiting for Veronique the next morning inviting her to dinner, and that she should bring Adrien and Nino with her.

So Veronique, Nino, and Adrien made their way up the mountain, Veronique carrying a steaming plate of cauliflower smothered in cheese, which was apparently one of Maru’s favorite dishes.

“Which one’s Maru?” Adrien asked Nino, who was walking beside him.

“The scientist chick. She danced with Dr. Harvey at the Flower Dance?” Nino said. “Her dad’s the dotty scientist that married Robin?”

“Yes, we see her sitting with that bookish redhead… uh, Peggy?” Adrien asked.

“Penny,” Veronique said good-naturedly, glancing behind her.

Adrien nodded. “Right.”

Veronique had explained that she memorized everyone’s name and favorite things over the five years she had been in the Valley. There wasn’t much Adrien knew about his father’s cousin, but he knew that Veronique had come from a dead end corporate job, and that’s why she shopped at Pierre’s even though it was a little more expensive than the corporate supermarket just north of the blacksmith and the library. Adrien and Nino just knew that Abby’s dad was the grocer and so they went to Pierre’s more often because it was closer to the Saloon where the five of them met on Fridays.

But Veronique really was a nice person even though she was a workaholic when it came to the farm and keeping it running. Something about missing her granddad and wanting to keep his legacy going, or something was one of Veronique’s reasons for working as hard as she did. She really was a good person, and Adrien appreciated that she had, on top of all her work, taken Adrien and Nino in when his father lost his mind over that last akuma attack back in Paris.

“Sam mentioned Sebastian had a half-sister. I just didn’t realize that she was who he meant…” Adrien replied sheepishly.

“Yeah… different dads. But you see Robin in the both of them, don’t you?” Veronique asked. “Maru builds her machines, while Demetrius really just collects data. Robin builds houses and statues and beautiful barns and chicken coops.”

“Sebastian must be more like  _ his  _ dad, then. I haven’t seen him build anything…” Nino commented.

But Adrien was reminded of the motorcycle, and how easy Sebastian made it look to be using a wrench. “Well, we obviously need to get to know Sebastian a bit more to find out,” was all he said.

Nino shrugged, “But will the guy let us? He seems hard to get to know…”

Veronique shrugged, “He only really comes out of his room at night and in the rain,” she said.

“God, he’s such an emo kid,” Nino laughed. “And we only see him on Fridays and Saturdays, and even then, he doesn’t really contribute to the conversation.”

Adrien tried not to bristle beside his friend, so he stuffed his hands into his pockets a little deeper. Thankfully Plagg was in his shirt pocket and not his pants’ pockets or he would have gotten squished.

At last the three reached Robin’s house. Robin wasn’t at the till, but Demetrius was in the lab right next to the shop, finishing up an experiment. Veronique handed the boys the dish and pointed them in the direction of the kitchen, getting into a deep conversation with Demetrius about the alkaline deposits in the farm soil. Adrien realized he had only been in the shop and Sebastian’s room before, so he was apprehensive of traversing the house to the kitchen, until he found Robin and Maru in it, smiling and cooking together.

“Oh! Ver’s Cheese Cauly! I love this stuff,” Maru said, taking the dish from Adrien and undoing the plastic wrap.

There was a feast already set up at the table, and Robin handed the boys paper plates to have their fill.

“Where’s Sebastian?” Adrien couldn’t help asking, putting his plate down on the table.

Robin frowned, “Hopefully just finishing something up. I told him you two were coming as well, and that he could invite Sam and Abby, too, but… he didn’t.”

Adrien looked at the direction of the doorway, but no dark-haired male appeared right then.

“I invited Penny. She should be here soon. Dr. Harvey said he might make the trip too,” Maru told mostly her mother.

Adrien left Nino with Maru and Robin and made his way toward the basement. He had to breathe in slowly before lifting his hand to knock on the door.

“I’m almost done!” Sebastian called when Adrien finally knocked.

Adrien smirked, knowing Sebastian more than likely thought that it was actually Robin coming to knock on his door. He opened the door and peeked in, “Evening, Sebastian.”

Sebastian jumped out of his chair, “Oh, hi there.”

“Just checking in,” Adrien said, opening the door a bit more and actually stepping over the threshold. “How’ve you been?”

Sebastian looked down at his computer screen, “Busy, actually.”

“Oh,” Adrien felt foolish. “I’ll let you finish that, then.”

Sebastian bit his lip and nodded, “Just one last line, then I’ll be up to, um, celebrate with you all.”

Adrien nodded, and closed the door behind him. The stairs up to the main house suddenly seemed longer than they actually were, and so he leaned against the door, closing his eyes and breathing slowly. Adrien had seen Sebastian last Saturday, and yet… the two of them hadn’t been alone together for a long time. Adrien was now too self-conscious about his crush on the other boy to approach him at night when Sebastian thoughtfully smoked by the mountain lake.... under the tree where Chat Noir and Sebastian first met, and where this whole crush thing probably started.

Adrien didn’t know how long he stood there against the door until it opened behind him and he nearly fell through.

“Whoa!” Sebastian yelled, catching the blond before he could fall backwards. “Yoba, what were you thinking?”

“Thanks. I think I needed a hero there,” Adrien tried to joke. “Also I  _ thought _ that the stairs were getting longer. … And that you weren’t ever going to come out of your room…”

Sebastian realized he was still clutching Adrien around the French boy’s waist and made sure Adrien was able to stand on his own before pulling his arms in around his own waist. In the darkness at the bottom of the stairs, neither boy noticed the other’s blushes. 

“Tunnel vision?” Sebastian finally managed to say. “Are you alright?”

“I should be fine.” Adrien missed Sebastian’s arm around him already. He began slowly climbing the stairs, and Sebastian followed, keeping an eye on him.

The rest of the party went by without a hitch. Dr. Harvey and Penny arrived a few minutes later, and so Adrien spent the evening getting to know each one of them. Penny lived in the trailer north of Mayor Lewis’s and east of Granny and George’s. She tutored Sam’s little brother and Marni’s niece Jas. Dr. Harvey lived above the clinic. By the end of the night, Adrien had roped Nino into getting a check-up the next day, and Nino had roped Adrien into getting one the day after.

Sebastian quietly sat in the corner of the kitchen, quietly eating the food Robin handed to him. Penny went home early, and Dr. Harvey left as soon as he had given a small diamond to Maru as a birthday gift. Nino and Maru went outside to look through Maru’s telescope, and Demetrius went back to the lab. Veronique and Robin were deep in discussion about getting a windmill built on the farm.

Adrien approached Sebastian slowly.

“You, um, look tense,” Adrien said. “Do you want to get out of here?”

Sebastian seemed to sigh in relief as he got up out of his seat.

Sebastian led him to his usual spot near the lake. Adrien glanced up at the tree Chat Noir had found refuge in that first night.

Sebastian must have been watching him, because he suddenly said, “Do you get nervous when you don’t have to transform into Chat Noir?”

Adrien glanced at him, “That’s... not it.”

Sebastian remained quiet as he lit a cigarette and took a long pull. Adrien looked at him for the longest time. 

Sebastian caught him, “Do I have something on my face?”

Adrien shook his head and looked away. “I do miss patrolling the streets of Paris at night, but… this has sort of been a little vacation for me. It’s odd, though. I’ve always been busy, have always had a schedule made for me with all the things that I had to do: fencing, photo shoots, school. There’s been so much time in the day here that I haven’t known what to do with myself. Without Nino here, I think I would have gone insane. And even now, Nino has been happily making friends left and right and…”

“He leaves you alone a lot more now, doesn’t he?” Sebastian inquired.

Adrien shrugged, “I’m used to being alone, though.”

Sebastian nodded, “Me too. You and Sam are my only friends here in town…”

“Me?” Adrien asked, searching the other boy’s face.

Sebastian let his one long forelock cover the side of his face. “I mean, I guess. Abby’s all right, but… She doesn’t push me into being social like Sam does, and she doesn’t always seek me out like you do. And everyone else… well, they think I’m weird.”

Adrien nodded, putting his hands into his pockets. “I was homeschooled until I was 15,” he confessed. Sebastian looked at him, but said nothing. Adrien went on, “My first day of real school, I made so many mistakes. I thought everyone would hate me. There was a girl I grew up with, she would have liked me no matter what, but everyone else… And then. I don’t know. Chat Noir turned up, and Ladybug, and soon our entire class was one big happy family, especially in the event that one of our own was akumatized…”

Sebastian smiled, “Seemed Chat Noir and Ladybug made your life a lot better then.”

Adrien shrugged. “A little bit. But then that one akuma hit.”

“The one that landed you here?”

Adrien nodded. “But I think I’m more thankful of that one than I am even of the first one.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, but instead of saying anything, took another long drag off his cigarette. “I’m… glad you’re here. In Pelican Town, I mean. It’s… It may be small and quiet, but… it’s safe, too.”

“Yeah,” Adrien replied. “I like Pelican Town. I like the entirety of Stardew Valley. There’s a magic here that even Paris doesn’t have, even with Ladybug and Chat Noir and everything else.”

The two fell silent for the longest time, until Nino came out from the house to find Adrien to tell him Veronique was ready to go home. Nino walked Adrien and Sebastian back to the front of the house where Robin and Veronique were waiting. Then the three of them: Veronique, Nino, and Adrien, walked home on the mountain paths behind Robin’s house and the farmhouse.

“Dude, what’s up with you and Sebastian?” Nino asked when they were both in bed a few hours later.

“He needs another friend,” was Adrien’s careful reply.

 

Sam’s birthday was the next Wednesday, and at a small gathering where Abby, Sebastian, Nino and Adrien gave him their gifts, they mainly just played video games at Sam’s place. Demetrius’s birthday was Friday, and that’s when Veronique and her guests were invited over to Robin’s once more. Of course, the boys were excused to go play pool at the Saloon with Sam and Abby if they so wished, but Adrien wanted to pick Sebastian up from his house and Nino wanted to see Maru again.

Robin invited the two boys to stay for dinner, and Sebastian decided to join them, though he really didn’t want to celebrate the birthday of his stepfather. Free food, though, was really what made Sebastian sit down at the dinner table that night.

Adrien worried about the other boy, but he was fascinated by the tale Robin was telling about her long courtship with Demetrius. 

“When he gave me the traditional bouquet, I was so thrilled,” said the redheaded woman fondly, looking over at her second husband.

“Bouquet?” Nino had to ask.

“It’s the traditional way of asking someone out,” Maru said. “If you give a person a bouquet, they know that you want to get serious with them.”

“Like a marriage proposal?” Nino asked, thoughtful.

“No,” Robin laughed, “I forget that you’re both not from around here! A bouquet signals that you want the other person to be your boyfriend or girlfriend, while the Mermaid Pendant signals that you want to marry the other person.” She showed them the blue-green shell she wore under her shirt.

“I haven’t seen  _ that _ at Pierre’s,” Adrien said. “Nor have I really paid attention to the bouquet section, either.”

Robin shook her head, “Oh, no. There’s a ghost of a Mariner that appears on the beach when it rains. You can purchase the pendant from him but only if he senses that you and your intended are truly in love with one another.”

Nino and Adrien looked at one another. Adrien had to remind himself of all the magic that he had seen himself there in the Valley, and Nino just looked like he was about to wet himself.

“Gh-Ghost?” Nino asked, looking to Maru.

Maru shrugged, “I’ve never seen him, but both Demetrius and Sebastian’s dad must have seen ‘im cause Mom’s married twice.”

Demetrius nodded at his daughter, “I  _ did _ see him. Didn’t believe what I was seeing, and once I had the Mermaid’s Pendant I never wanted to go back there in the rain. But Lewis swears the Mariner’s always there when it rains, and he always has a pendant for someone who is so in love they’re willing to make that next step.”

It was all fascinating for Adrien, who just knew of engagement rings, and how flowers were just something nice people gave him for a show well done. But he guessed he had only seen people exchange one single flower on birthdays so far here in the Valley.

He glanced over at Sebastian, wondering if he would even appreciate a bouquet. Then Adrien shook his head:  _ he _ wasn’t even ready for a bouquet yet, not the way it would be perceived there in Pelican Town.

Nino, Sebastian, and Adrien left for the Saloon soon after, and while Sebastian trounced Sam in a game of pool, as usual, Adrien sat next to Abby on the blue couch.

“Your dad sells the bouquets, doesn’t he?”

Abby giggled, “Oh that old tradition. Yes, he does. That’s how Kent got Jodi, and how Mom got Dad, which I found fascinating, actually. I’ve been trying to get Clint to just buy one for Emily already, but he says she hardly notices him.”

Adrien watched the aforementioned blue-haired woman as she went over to where Clint the blacksmith was sitting in the main room, how doe-eyed the man got when Emily approached. 

“Got your eye on someone?” Abby asked, and the backroom got a little quieter, even Nino and Sam lowered their strategy talk to listen.

Adrien swallowed heavily, “I might have.”

Sebastian made his move on the table as quickly as he could after that, and Sam (and Nino) had to retaliate.

Adrien got up and went to the main room to order a glass of wine, pointedly ignoring everyone else in the room.

Sebastian came up from behind him. Adrien heard him, of course, and turned to look at him.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Adrien joked.

“But information brought him back,” Sebastian said, finishing the old adage. “You don’t have to say who she is.”

Adrien smiled, leaning over the bar as he sipped at his glass. “Fille ou garçon / Ce s’ra bleu ciel ou rose bonbon / Garçon ou fille / Bien sûr Pokémon ou Barbie / Garçon garçon, / Ce s’ra caleçon et pantalon…” he sang softly under the noise of the Saloon.

Sebastian glanced at him with a confused frown. “Uh. Vous… vous parlez francais encore.”

“Je sais,” Adrien replied with a nod. “It’s a song by Alizee. It might open your eyes a little,” he just stopped himself from attaching ‘my lord’.

Instead he finished his glass of wine, turning to Sebastian and putting his hand on the other’s shoulder. “Tell Nino I’ll meet him at home.”

“Wait,” Sebastian said, grabbing Adrien’s sleeve before immediately letting go. “Abby’s got something, and she’s our usual third, but Sam and I want to play Solarion Chronicles at my place tomorrow. I said I’d ask someone else to fill in before we try a two-player campaign.”

“Solarian Chronicles?” Adrien asked.

“Um. It’s a bit like Dungeons & Dragons…” Sebastian explained, rubbing his neck. “Except not as open-world, so to speak.”

Adrien nodded, “Can I find a better explanation online?”

Sebastian blushed, his face falling slightly, “Oh, yeah.”

Adrien tried to look Sebastian in the eye, “Joking, again,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t have to explain yourself as much, because I know you hate to do that.”

Sebastian’s eyes widened, and he flushed slightly. “Oh. Thank you.”

Adrien smiled, and turned to leave, “What time?”

“Um, 2 in the afternoon.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Okay.”

“Good night, Sebastian.”

“Good night… Adrien.”

 

Nino accompanied Adrien up the mountain to Sebastian’s house.

“I want to see if Maru’s there, and if she’s not, I want to ask if Robin or Demetrius know where she might be,” he said.

“How is Demetrius taking your advances on his daughter?” Adrien asked teasingly.

“Uh, he gave me the shovel talk a couple of days ago, actually,” Nino said, rubbing the back of his neck with a slight blush.

Adrien burst out laughing, “Oh man…”

“He just told me to keep in mind her budding scientific career and all that… I mean, like I wasn’t… I like career-minded girls…” Nino explained.

“I am not Demetrius, dude,” Adrien replied with a grin. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

“Shut up, man,” Nino said, shoving him playfully. “Well, what about you? Has Pierre given you the shovel talk yet?”

Adrien flushed, “What? Uh, well… no.”

“It  _ is _ Abby, isn’t it?” Nino asked.

Adrien flushed, “How would you have guessed her?”

“I saw the picture you sent from my phone, Adrien. Abby and Sebastian. And I’m sure it isn’t Sebastian so…”

Adrien contemplated saying it, and then did, “It  _ is _ Sebastian, though.”

Nino blinked, then went on, “All right. So  _ Demetrius _ should have given you the shovel talk, then.”

Adrien stopped in his tracks, staring at his friend, who had to stop and look behind him at the blond. “You’re not surprised that it’s Sebastian and not Abigail?” Adrien asked.

“Dude, we are the butt of every other country’s jokes when it comes to the sexuality of France,” Nino replied with a shrug. “‘Depending on the time of day the French go either way,’ and all that. That, and I don’t care who you date. I know you dated Marinette before, but if you’re actually gay, that’s fine too.”

Adrien caught up to Nino then, and they both continued walking, “I’m bi, actually. I  _ know _ in my heart I loved Marinette.”

Nino shrugged, “Well… it doesn’t matter, man. You like a boy now, though, so… Wow. Sebastian, huh? Why him?”

“Tall, dark, and mysterious?” Adrien replied, shrugging.

Nino thought about as the smoke from the chimney of Maru and Sebastian’s house came into view over the ridge. “Yeah, I guess. Well… Demetrius probably wouldn’t give you the shovel talk on this one, but… Robin might. And she might be ten times worse, actually.”

“Nah,” Adrien said with a shit-eating grin, “She likes  _ me _ .”

Nino shoved him again.

 

The two friends split up when they opened the door to the house. They both waved at Robin, who told them Maru was in her room, and that Sebastian and Sam were waiting for Adrien in Sebastian’s room. Nino gave Adrien a shit-eating grin, which prompted the blond to shove him in the direction of Maru’s room before he made his own way down to the basement.

Adrien knocked on the door, and Sebastian’s voice called, “Come in!”

Once inside, Sebastian pointed to the empty chair at the table, and Adrien sat down.

“I did as much research as I could last night,” Adrien said, “Apparently Ver knows a lot about this game as well.”

“Your choice, then, for your character: Wizard, Healer, or Warrior,” Sam said.

“Oh?” Adrien said with a bit of a smile. “Wizard, then.”

“Guess I’ll be healer,” Sebastian said, “I know you like to be the warrior, Sam.”

“Hell, yeah!” Sam crowed. He looked at a piece of paper from the box and said, “You want to narrate this time around or shall I?”

Sebastian chuckled, “I made Abby laugh too hard last time, so you go.”

Sam nodded, “All right then. So, the king has ask the three of us to go on a grand adventure, blah, blah, blah, ‘Go get the Solarian Staff from the dreaded Necromancer!’”

“Hm, the blah, blah, blah broke my immersion there,” Adrien dead-panned, glancing over at Sebastian, who chuckled behind his fist.

“Shut up, both of you,” Sam admonished, then got back into his booming narrator voice, “If you take on this quest, you’ll gain a spot in the songs of the legends, not to mention a hefty sum of gold and silver. Suffice to say, we take the offer and go off on said adventure.

“After a long month of journeying, the three of us see the dreaded Necromancer's tower in the distance.”

“Say, Sam?” Adrien inquired, eyebrows raising, “What’s this necromancer’s name?” He totally remembered this storyline from his research the night before, but he wanted to hear the other blond say it out loud.

“Dreadlord Xarth,” Sam replied, reading off the paper. “He uses the staff’s powers for his own nefarious reasons.”

“Of course he does,” Adrien quipped, laughing, “They all do.”

“Shu-ush!” Sam whined, then continued, “So, now we have two choices, my friends. Do we go through the front door to this guy’s tower, or do we go through the back?”

Sebastian and Sam looked to Adrien, who was resting his head on hand. “Oh, am I making all the decisions here?”

“You are the newbie,” Sam replied.

“Will I be graded on my performance?” Adrien asked.

Sam shrugged, “Maybe.”

“How many times have you played this game?” Adrien asked, looking first to Sebastian, and then to Sam.

“This particular campaign?” Sam retorted. “It’s been a couple months since the last time we played. I don’t even remember what happened. Abby was the warrior, I think?’

“Oh, whatever,” Adrien muttered. “The back door or the front door. Hm. How about the back? We don’t want to give ourselves up just yet…”

Sebastian and Sam nodded at each other, so Sam took up the story sheet again, “We’re in a sewer. Thanks Adrien.”

Adrien threw up his hands, “Ah, dammit.”

Sam chuckled, but pushed on, “To our left is a hallway that glows with an eerie green light. On the left, there’s a staircase leading up into the dark.”

The two residents of Pelican Town looked to Adrien again.

“What? I got us into this backdoor mess, and you want my opinion again?”

“Second chances,” Sebastian replied easily.

Adrien shrugged, “The glowy hallway, then.”

Sam nodded, “There’s some dudes in giant capsules. You want to destroy them?”

“Hell yeah,” Adrien replied. “Dudes in capsules in an eerie green light is never a good thing.”

“We destroy ‘em all, and go up the stairs. There, we find Xarth.”

“Let’s destroy him, too,” Adrien quipped.

Sam laughed, “Yes, oh magic one. He knows we’re here for the staff and he wants us to be part of his skeleton army.”

“The one we destroyed in the last room? Ha! Good luck!” Adrien said.

Sebastian smiled, covering his mouth as he did.

Sam pressed on, “Oh no! Xarth casts a shadow beam!”

“I defend my fellows with a magic shield, or whatever the alternative on your answer sheet is,” Adrien said, standing up slightly, really getting into the story.

Sam smiled, “Ah thank you friend.”

“Yes, thank you,” Sebastian said from across the table, saluting slightly.

“The spell ricochets and kills the dark wizard. We win!”

“We’re legends!” Adrien cried.

“We’re rich!” crowed Sam.

“We’re alive?” Sebastian added. The other two looked at him, then they all burst out laughing.

“Is that really it?” Adrien asked, sitting back down.

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “That’s really it. You did well, though.”

“A rating of B, I think,” Sam replied.

“What now?” Adrien asked.

“I can crush one of you at Mario Kart,” Sam shrugged.

“You’re on,” Adrien said, “I was once up for a video game tournament when I was fifteen, I can totally handle you.”

“You said that last time!” Sam griped.

“I wasn’t lying!” Adrien said, grabbing a controller, then he looked over at Sebastian and gave him a glorified smirk, “You can look it up.”

Sebastian blushed, but before anyone could see it, he ducked behind the console to plug it in.

 

It rained that next Tuesday.

Veronique still put her rubber boots and raincoat on, though, and was off to tend her crops and feed her animals.

Nino got some work done on his laptop, and Adrien looked longingly out the window, Felix the cat sitting next to him. 

Felix’s tail was twitching, and Adrien was sure that if he had his own tail out, it would be twitching as well. He knew he could have read a book, or listened to some music, but he had come to look forward to all the adventures he had outside nowadays, and he mourned the fact that the heaviest coat his had brought was a spring jacket. He resolved to go into town the very next time the general store was open, and make sure he had a raincoat, at least. He wasn’t even sure he would be there for the autumn or winter months, but he had money, so if the time came and he was in fact staying, he’d get the proper seasonal clothing.

Today, however, would be quite miserable.

If Adrien let it…

He decided to get outside somewhere after lunch. Nino was off up the mountain to see Maru again, but Adrien seemed to remember Sam telling him that Sebastian would either be at the Saloon, or at the beach, when it rained. Adrien’s gut told him he himself should go to the beach.

Despite not having a proper raincoat, he wore his spring jacket anyway, hoping that the summer rain would be warm, and the weather did not disappoint. He kept his head down, his hands stuffed in his pockets, as he passed the bus station, then headed into the town square. He passed by the clinic, then the saloon, then the graveyard before he made his way onto the beach.

The sand squished under Adrien’s shoes as he searched for and found the figure in the distance at the end of the dock. He smiled knowingly to himself. His shoes were quiet on the aging, slick wood, and soon he was standing next to Sebastian, who had his hood up, and so didn’t see Adrien at first.

They looked out across the water.

“What do you think you’d find on the other side?” Adrien asked.

Sebastian glanced over at him. “Oh, hi.”

Adrien smiled, “Sam mentioned I’d find you here.”

“I could have been at the Saloon,” Sebastian replied, putting his hands into his hoodie pocket.

“Yeah, but why would you?” Adrien commented, “It seems much quieter here.”

Sebastian was silent for a moment. “People make me nervous.”

Adrien nodded, “Yeah, I figured that out.”

Sebastian groaned a bit, “I mean,  _ most _ people make me nervous. But… not you.”

Adrien’s smile faded in shock, and he stared steadily at the dark-haired male. “Well… awesome?”

Sebastian nodded. “I’m always anxious, even around Sam and Abby, and my mother, too. But… not you. Maybe it’s because I  _ know _ about you, or maybe I’m just… accustomed to your… presence in my life. The only thing I… fear… about you, is that you’ll leave for Paris again too… too soon.”

“Too soon for what?” Adrien asked slowly.

Sebastian lowered his hood and really looked at Adrien, “Yoba, you must be freezing.”

Adrien shrugged, “The rain’s actually quite warm.”

“Still, you’re soaked,” Sebastian said, taking his hands out of his pockets to take out a small retractable umbrella. He unfurled it.

Adrien was reminded of the day so many years ago when he had offered his umbrella to Marinette. But this time, Sebastian stepped closer to Adrien so they were both under the dark umbrella, watching as the waves lapped at the wooden posts keeping the ancient dock up.

“I’ve forgotten to buy a bouquet for about a week now,” Sebastian confessed, still staring across the water, his cheeks pink.

Adrien blushed, “What?”

Sebastian pursed his lips. “I… have been meaning to get to Pierre’s and buy a bouquet… for you.”

Adrien’s head snapped up to stare at the other male, “You…?”

Sebastian swallowed loudly, “Uh. Yeah.”

It was only Tuesday, Adrien thought: Pierre’s was only closed on Wednesdays. He took a chance, grabbing Seb’s hand.

“What are you--?” Sebastian asked, a little panicked at the contact.

Adrien held his apology in his eyes as he lead Sebastian from the dock and back into town, toward the general store. “I know Abby said it was a silly tradition, but if it’ll make us official, then… I want to get one for you,” he said as they reached the door.

Pierre raised his eyebrow when the two males entered the shop, both nearly soaking wet and sandy, Adrien clutching at Sebastian’s hand like his life depended on it. But he smiled when Adrien reached for the bouquet display case and picked up the colorfully wrapped flowers. Once paid for, right there in the shop, Adrien handed Sebastian the bouquet, sweeping into a low bow. “My lord,” he said, taking Sebastian’s hand to kiss it.

Sebastian let out a breath he was holding in and gave a high-pitched giggle. “Oh, Adrien…” he whispered, gripping the bouquet with one hand as Adrien straightened, still holding Sebastian’s other hand. 

Adrien put his free hand over the hand Sebastian was using to hold the bouquet. He looked up, searching Sebastian’s face. “Well?”

Sebastian chewed his lower lip, thousands of worries and questions flickering over his face at once before he breathed out shakily and nodded.

Adrien grinned widely at him, and would have kissed Sebastian had Pierre and now Abigail not started clapping right then and there.

Sebastian hugged the bouquet close at the sudden loud noise, and then, terrified, he bolted. Adrien glared at the father and daughter team before going after him, and then thinking better of it: Sebastian would need a little time to let Adrien’s gift sink in, so he decided to go to the farmhouse and get out of his sopping wet clothes first, before going over to Sebastian’s to check on him.


	3. PART THREE

His phone rang right as Adrien got dressed, having taken a warm shower. Before leaving for home, Adrien had bought a rain poncho, though the rain let up as soon as he was halfway home, and by looking out the window after his shower while Adrien dressed in fresh clothing, the rain didn’t look like it was coming back. Which was good.

“Hello?” Adrien asked, not bothering to look at the caller ID. 

He immediately regretted not doing so: “I need you to come home,” said Gabriel right away.

“I’m kind of busy at the moment,” Adrien replied, not feeling like sassing his father and employer.

“Well, hear me out before you go,” Gabriel admonished. “I’ve got some real estate just outside Florence, Italy, and I think we can continue our operations there. Nathalie doesn’t mind moving the office down there, at least.”

“Why can’t we just set up shop here in Pelican Town? You said you were sending me here because it was off the radar and all that.”

“It would put Pelican Town ‘on the radar’ if you started work there, though,” Gabriel reminded his son gruffly. “I can’t do that to Veronique. She went out there just so she could get away from the corporate rat race, as she so colloquially put it.”

Adrien partly felt bad for thinking to bring Veronique back into the corporate fold, but… “I like it here,” he said.

“We’ll build a vacation home there, then,” Gabriel said.

Adrien shook his head, “That’s not enough!” He didn’t necessarily want to mention Sebastian, since their relationship was so new, so he kept quiet any reasons he might have for staying to his father. “Look, call me back in a week, and I’ll give you an answer then.”

Gabriel sighed, and Adrien imagined he was rubbing his temples. “All right, Adrien. I’ll call in a week, and you  _ better _ have an answer for me about this by then!”

Adrien hung up quickly, not wanting to speak to his father anymore. Great. It was a rather inconvenient time for Gabriel to want him back, actually, and in a week he’d probably still not have an answer for him.

And,  _ oh no _ , Sebastian had been  _ worried _ about Adrien leaving so soon! Adrien rubbed his temples and then slumped over the table he had sat at sometime during his conversation with his dad. Sebastian was untrusting to begin with, and here Adrien was, giving him another reason not to trust him… though it wasn’t Adrien’s fault. He could just say no to his father in a week, even quit his job if he wanted to. Gabriel was his father, and would still send him money if he chose to stay there in Pelican Town…

With that happy thought in his head, Adrien fed Plagg some camembert, and took off up the mountain, watching the sun as it began its slow descent behind the horizon.

 

Adrien heard an engine rev when he neared Sebastian’s house.

Sebastian was on his bike, but when Adrien approached, he gave Adrien a big smile, which made Adrien feel better about where the two stood after the whole bouquet debacle earlier.

“I want to show you something. Hop on!” Sebastian called over the noise.

Adrien nodded to save his voice, and Sebastian pointed to another helmet hanging near the garage door. Adrien slapped it on, and climbed on the motorcycle behind the dark-haired man.

Because of the noise of the motorcycle, there was no conversation on the way up the mountain. But soon, Pelican Town retreated behind them, and the nearest city, simply called Zuzu City, was a bright beacon in front of them. On a ledge overlooking the city, with the peaks of the mountain behind them separating them from Stardew Valley, Sebastian stopped, powering down the bike until it was completely shut off.

Adrien climbed off, stretching to get his “land legs” back, as Sebastian lovingly put the kickstand down and positioned the bike to his liking. Adrien looked out over the lights of the city, and Sebastian took out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a drag.

Adrien looked behind him at the other male, “It’s beautiful here,” he said, “and peaceful. I can see why you come here.”

“I don’t come all the time, but… “ Sebastian trailed off, “Sometimes the beach and the lake by my house aren’t enough ‘fresh air’ for me.”

“Not to mention you can ride your bike out here,” Adrien added, nodding at the bike behind them.

“Yeah,” Sebastian smiled, “No one really knows about the bike except for my family… and you.”

“Not even Sam?” Adrien asked, raising his head to the sky like a cat would when faced with the breeze from a fan, “I feel so lucky.”

“Even though you’re supposed to be bad luck in your dynamic duo back home?” Sebastian teased.

The mention of home made Adrien’s stomach drop, so he stuffed his hands into his pocket and looked out over the city lights. “Yeah,” he managed.

The silence between them, as usual, was comfortable. Sebastian finished his cigarette, and threw it under his boot. But he picked it up and threw it into a trash receptacle on the end of the bike. Adrien watched this, and Sebastian shrugged when he glanced at the other man. “Veronique taught me a few things about keeping places clean for the animals.”

Adrien smiled, “Has she been up here?”

Sebastian shook his head, “I don’t usually take girls up here,” he saw the look Adrien gave him and laughed, “Boys, neither.”

Adrien smirked very Chat Noir-like, “I guess I’m luckier than I thought.”

Sebastian put his hands into the pocket of his hoodie, eyes gravitating to the ground. “I’m… sorry I left so abruptly this afternoon…”

“I’m sorry I made my… confession… so public,” Adrien replied. “I just… got excited. I didn’t want to wait one moment longer.”

Sebastian nodded, grinning despite himself. “I’m such a nervous wreck sometimes…”

Adrien’s eyes met Sebastian’s, and the dark-haired male looked away again, “I couldn’t… I couldn’t believe that you would… like me. I… I’m a mess, and you’re… you’re gorgeous.”

Adrien blushed, “Oh, stop it. You’re not a mess, and, well, I guess I am gorgeous,” a grin from both of them, “but that doesn’t mean I’m untouchable. I mean… I  _ just _ found out I’m bisexual. I haven’t really got everything figured out.”

The blond slowly approached Sebastian, and when the other didn’t shy away, Adrien put his hands on Sebastian’s waist, and Sebastian countered by putting his arms over Adrien’s shoulders. They were just about the same height, though Sebastian’s boots made him maybe an inch taller. Sebastian gave Adrien his lopsided grin, and Adrien couldn’t help but return it.

And then they were kissing.

And then they weren’t.

But they were still very close to each other’s face, and Sebastian’s breathing was off, and so was Adrien’s, and Sebastian was rubbing his thumb over the back of Adrien’s neck and Adrien was  _ purring _ again.

Sebastian laughed, “So, does this make me Lois Lane?”

Adrien smiled, “I guess it does.”

Sebastian grinned again before kissing the blond once more.

 

Sam and Abby weren’t surprised that Sebastian and Adrien were a couple. Abby had her suspicions, and Sam was just a cool guy. Also, Nino might have let slip that Adrien, at least, had a crush on Sebastian. The rest of the town didn’t seem to mind either, and Veronique even encouraged the two.

For a couple of days, Adrien had been walking on air. The two of them would see each other each night when Adrien went up the mountain to stand with Sebastian when he went out to the lake to smoke, and Sebastian even came down to the farm once or twice in the afternoons. Robin was ecstatic that Adrien had gotten her son out of his shell.

“I told you Robin likes me,” Adrien told Nino, sticking his tongue out at him. 

Nino shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

Nino, Maru, Abigail, Sam, Adrien, and Sebastian were all sitting on the beach before the end of the summer festival, when the mysterious moonlight jellies, a type of jellyfish which migrated past Pelican Town’s beach at the end of the summer, would visit around midnight.

“Just your type of festival,” Adrien commented when Maru explained the festival to him and her boyfriend, Nino, Adrien’s arms around Sebastian’s shoulders.

Sebastian grinned, “This and the Spirit’s Eve festival are my festivals.”

It was then that Adrien’s phone rang again. He saw that it was his father and groaned. “I have to take this,” he said, getting up off the edge of the dock. 

The early afternoon sun was high in the sky as Adrien made his way across the treacherous wooden bridge across to the other side of the beach. “Hello?”

“Adrien! I need your verdict,” Gabriel said sharply.

“No thanks, father,” Adrien said with a little smile. “Pelican Town is a much quieter lifestyle.”

Gabriel sighed, “Fair enough,” he said. “But do you have any idea how much business you're missing out on?”

“Think of it as a hiatus,” Adrien replied. “Someday I’ll come back to Paris and modeling.”

Gabriel sighed, and Adrien pretended his father was rubbing his temples again, which he well could have been.

“All right,” Gabriel said. He was silent for a moment, and Adrien waited for Gabriel to either hang up on him, or plead with him some more. Instead, Gabriel said,  “Just to let you know, I’m in Florence right now. Paris still… isn’t safe.”

Adrien’s stomach dropped, “What about Ladybug and Chat Noir? Aren’t they still… saving the day?”   
“Ladybug has been trying her best, as far as we can tell,” Gabriel sounded… worried for Paris’s superheroine, “But Chat Noir hasn’t been seen for a while and… well, Ladybug being by herself might not be enough. It’s true Hawkmoth hasn’t been seen for a while but, when he is he’s gotten very close to getting whatever it is that he has wanted. Ladybug looks… more tired than usual.”

_ I shouldn’t have left _ , Adrien thought, his heart palpitating.

“I’ll, um, talk to you later, father,” Adrien said, and hung up quickly.

He looked behind him at his friends and his loving boyfriend, Adrien’s eyebrows screwed up in worry. Then he dashed into the bushes, yelling his transformation words…

 

“Ladybug!”

“Chat? It it really you?”

“You sound…”

“Horrible, I know. I miss you.”

Chat’s belt tail swayed as it dangled from the tree. He was in the Cindersnap Forest, far from even the Wizard’s tower. A little glowing pawprint was on the screen of his communicator, but he stared into it as if he would see his partner’s pretty face.

“When are you coming home?” Ladybug asked.

Chat Noir’s heart broke. “I... “

Adrien was torn between going back to Paris and helping Ladybug and staying there in the Valley with Sebastian and the farm.

“I don’t know if I can…”

There was a long silence between them. “Why not?” Ladybug asked. “Paris needs you.  _ I _ need you.”

“I know that, my lady, but…” he couldn’t just leave Sebastian. That would make the other male’s fears come true. And Adrien, at least, couldn’t do that to him. “My mission.”

“Yes, your mission,” Ladybug said, the hope leaving her voice.

Chat Noir’s heart wrenched. His oldest friend needed him, but his love needed him as well.

“Give me a week, Ladybug,” Chat Noir said. “I’ll… try to have something figured out by then. I’ll call you at midnight your time. I promise.” He hung up as he lost his nerve.

He would have to tell Sebastian by the end of the week, and maybe… just maybe… they could figure something out between the two of them. Maybe.

But first, the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies.

 

Adrien had tried to forget, but the day came. 

At midnight he would call Ladybug again, and he would either break her heart or give her hope again. And he wanted to give her hope, he really did. But he had to figure out how to keep Sebastian happy as well.

They were spending the day in Sebastian’s basement room. Sebastian was hard at work on another program for another client, and Adrien was reading one of Sebastian’s science fiction novels. Or trying to. He wasn’t  _ that _ fluent in English. 

He finally gave up: translating wasn’t really reading, and a headache was coming on. He caught the time, and gulped. It was almost 5 in the afternoon, and it would be midnight in Paris soon.

“Sebastian…” Adrien said, sitting up.

Sebastian blinked, glancing at the clock at the bottom of his computer screen. “Oh, sorry. Are you hungry?”

Adrien didn’t want to take the discussion anywhere else, actually. “Uh. Not yet.”

Sebastian caught on to Adrien’s discomfort. He stood up only to crawl on the floor toward the blond male. “Everything alright, kitty?” he asked, putting his arms around Adrien’s shoulders, dark eyes looking worriedly at him, eyebrows dipped.

Adrien breathed in slowly, as Nathalie taught him, and then breathed out.

“Uh…” a great start, surely. Sebastian let him gather himself, however.

“I hate this,” Adrien said, gripping at Sebastian’s hips. “You were so scared I would leave and now… I fear I’ll have to… quite soon…” Adrien closed his eyes to breathe again.

Sebastian shifted beside him, but his hands stayed firmly around Adrien’s shoulders, grounding the Parisian. Finally, the dark-haired male spoke: “I’ve always wanted to leave the Valley.”

Adrien’s eyes opened. Sebastian moved so he was crouching in front of his boyfriend, his dark eyebrows knitted together in thought. “I thought, when I had the money, I would go to Zuzu City and live there instead, but… Being Chat Noir is important to you, right?”

Adrien gulped and nodded. “Dad called. He wanted me to restart my life in Italy. He gave me a week to give him an answer, and after that week he mentioned… he mentioned that Ladybug wasn’t doing very well on her own. I… didn’t want to leave you, but…”

“Paris is your home,” Sebastian said with a ghost of a smile. He was silent for a moment, thinking. “It might be fun, actually putting my French skills to good use…”

Adrien stared at the dark-haired male. “Are you… are you implying that you’d move to Paris with me?”

Sebastian shrugged, “Paris and… Ladybug are important to you. So they’re important to me.”

Adrien’s jaw dropped, and then his mind began to race. “Father won’t let us move into the mansion--it’s too central, and the last akuma is still fresh in his mind--but… I could find us an apartment near the edge of the city and with Chat Noir’s speed on rooftops I could still get to emergencies on time. You can write programs anywhere and you know conversational French and you can get better by living there. Oh, darling, you’re a genius!” 

He threw his arms around Sebastian and kissed him. When he pulled away, they were both smiling, though now Sebastian looked worried.

“I’d have a lot of prep work to do before we’d be able to go. When does Ladybug need you back?”

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he looked at the clock. “I was going to call her at midnight her time.”

Sebastian glanced the clock too, “And with the time difference? When is that here?”

“Six.”

Sebastian looked at the ground, then took a deep breath. “How about you go back first. Tell her you’ll be back within the week. Tell your dad to put you up in a hotel somewhere away from the Eiffel Tower or something. Find us an apartment. Meanwhile, I’ll stay here and pack my stuff to have it shipped over there, and take care of a few other things.” Sebastian was slow and thoughtful as he spoke, ideas still coming to him as he did. Adrien’s eyes got more and more hopeful as his boyfriend continued: “Then, in a month and a half or so, I’ll go over there, and we’ll have an apartment and my work and your work, and you can fight alongside Ladybug, and I’ll get used to living in Paris.”

Adrien gripped his boyfriend’s shoulder and lifted his chin so Sebastian was looking at Adrien’s face. The blond was beaming. “Are you absolutely sure, Seb?”

Sebastian’s deep breath was shaky, and his hair covered one dark colored eye, but he managed a smile and a slight nod: “Paris can’t be too different from Zuzu City, right? Just a lot older and French. And you’ll be there with me.”

Adrien couldn’t help himself: he kissed Sebastian again, deeper than he ever had before.

 

The day before Adrien’s plane left, it rained. Nino was out with Maru saying his final goodbyes to her, so Adrien braved the rain to get to the beach. He had a mission.

The day of his flight, Sebastian had come with Robin and Veronique to the bus station to see him and Nino off. The dark-haired boy was tearing up a little.

“Why are you crying, love?” Adrien asked. 

Nino rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest, smiling good-naturedly as Adrien wrapped his arms around the black-clad male.

“You’ll be joining me by the beginning of Winter,” Adrien told Sebastian, looking into the other’s eyes.

“I know,” Sebastian whispered. “I just hate goodbyes.”

“It’s not goodbye,” Adrien replied with a shrug, “It’s a… see you later. So... a bientot, mon coeur.”

Sebastian smiled, and nodded, and then made way for Robin and then Veronique to give Adrien a hug. After watching Nino hug Robin and Veronique, the two got on the bus. They waved at the three until the bus drove into the tunnel and the Valley was out of sight.

“What an adventure,” Nino said, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back against the red velvet seat. “And you’re moving in with yours!”

Adrien shoved his friend lightly, and they both laughed.

“Think you’ll call Alya when we get back?” Adrien asked, looking slyly at Nino.

“Why the hell would I do that, man? It’s been two years since we broke up!”

“Yeah, but Maru’s just like her. Except she fixes the camera instead of works behind it.”

Nino blushed, and decided the scenery going passed the window was more interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an epilogue left!


	4. Epilogue (PART FOUR)

A bell rung over his head and he smiled. It was a nice sound. The older Chinese lady looked up from her register and smiled. 

“Ah, Sebastian! The usual?” she asked.

Sebastian went up to her and let her kiss him on both cheeks.

It had been a culture shock at first when women he’d met only two times or so had given him that French salutation of two (or even more) kisses, one on each cheek. He had met Nino’s Alya, and he had met Marinette, Mrs. Cheng’s daughter and Adrien’s ex-girlfriend, while she had been home from fashion school. But he had gotten used to it, even when Adrien had tried to explain that Sebastian didn’t like to be touched by strangers.

When he had gotten to Paris at last, Adrien’s  _ limo _ had picked him up at the airport. Adrien couldn’t keep his hands to himself on the ride to Sebastian and Adrien’s new home. The apartment was in a gorgeous building at the outskirts of town, right before one hits the suburbs. Adrien had furnished the apartment with things from his old room in the Agreste mansion, as well as the things Sebastian had sent from his basement room back in Stardew Valley. The bed was the only true new thing in the entire apartment. But they broke it in that very night.

Sebastian had been in Paris for only a few months, but he had met Mr. Agreste, who liked Sebastian immediately (he was certainly more polite than Nino, at least); Nathalie, who was at least polite to Sebastian; Marinette, Alya, and half of Paris (Adrien brought him as a guest to many a company party that holiday season. He made it up to Sebastian later by doing all the shopping for the rest of the week so Sebastian could hide in their apartment).

“Yes please, Mrs. Cheng,” Sebastian replied to the baker’s wife. “How’s Marinette doing?”

“Wonderfully, as usual, though I worry she works too hard. Last time she Skyped, she told me she’s had to stay up late working a lot of the time,” Mrs. Cheng replied as she readied Sebastian’s order: a whole box of croissants. Adrien had apparently once been denied Mr. Dupain’s croissants and vowed never again would he ever not have at least one box lying around. Sebastian chuckled to himself at the thought.

“How is Adrien?” Mrs. Cheng asked as she rung up the order.

“Busy,” Sebastian replied. “But he manages to separate work from regular life.”

Mrs. Cheng beamed at him, “I am so glad of that, dear,” she said.

Sebastian paid for his order and said his goodbyes. He was just about to leave when a crazy costumed lady touched down just outside. She landed on the telephone pole and twirled a purple and black baton. Sebastian rolled his eyes: another akuma. After only two months, he was used to supervillains just appearing out of nowhere. But he usually caught attacks on television...

Sebastian watched as Ladybug and Chat Noir landed on a nearby rooftop. His heart leapt to see the black-clad superhero, and he watched as Ladybug came up with her plan and whispered it to Chat. Chat then leaped off the roof, distracting the crazy circus lady as he bounced from the ground onto the telephone wire, trying to move around the deadly purple and black shots the akumatized lady was firing from her baton.

Sebastian couldn’t watch as Chat flailed desperately on the wire, and so he transferred his attention to Ladybug. She had jumped from rooftop to rooftop as Chat Noir distracted their target. Finally, she landed on the pole behind the circus lady and shouted something at Chat Noir, who powered up his cataclysm and cut the telephone wire. The lady fell, throwing her baton into the air. Ladybug caught it, and broke it over her knee.

A little black and purple butterfly flew out of one end, and Ladybug caught it in her spotted yoyo, letting it free after a few moments. It was once again its pure white, and it flapped off into the blue sky, over the rooftops of Paris before it disappeared from Sebastian’s sight.

Sebastian pushed on the door and stepped outside. Ladybug helped the de-akumatized lady up and said some kind advice to her.

“Oh man, fate must have lead me here to meet you, handsome,” a familiar voice purred in Sebastian’s ear.

Sebastian balked. This was the first time Chat Noir had dared speak to him in public. Chat Noir chuckled, stepping only one step away from the confused foreigner. “What’s up? Cat got your tongue?” the cat themed superhero chuckled at his rather over-used pun.

Sebastian gave Chat a slightly withering look before going into his best star-struck expression. “Oh, Chat Noir,” Sebastian said breathily, looking up at the superhero shyly. “Thank you for saving the day once again.”

“Yes,” Chat said, looking over at Ladybug, “What would you ever do without me?”

“I’ve never known a time without you,” Sebastian replied.

“You’re accent is good,” Chat Noir told him, “But you’re not exactly from around here, are you?”

Sebastian tried not to smile: he was playacting, after all. “I’m not, no. I am originally from a small town in America.”

Chat Noir put his arm around Sebastian, concern in his green eyes, “What’s a handsome country boy like you doing in a big bad city like this one, and overseas to boot!”

Sebastian let himself smile, big and wide. “My boyfriend lives here.”

Chat Noir respectfully distanced himself. “Oh.”

Ladybug had successfully saw the de-akumatized circus performer off, and was standing behind the two with her arms crossed. She laughed. “Bad luck, kitty cat,” she commented.

Chat Noir shrugged, “Well, that  _ is  _ my MO, my lady.”

Sebastian chuckled, and looked to Ladybug, “Thanks again, Ladybug and Chat Noir,” he gestured to the pastry box in his hands, “I better get these home.”

“Ooh, that boy of yours better never let you go!” Chat Noir said, recognizing the box.

Sebastian nodded, looking straight into Chat Noir’s eyes, “Yeah, he better not.”

Chat Noir blushed, and Sebastian triumphantly made his way down into the Metro station.

 

Sebastian was just setting the box of pastries on the table when Chat Noir came through the window and powered down. Sebastian had camembert ready for the tired kwami who flew out.

The dark-haired male nuzzled the kwami gently as he proffered the cheese to him.

Adrien came up from behind Sebastian and kissed his neck. “You’re a good actor, Sebby,” The blond purred into Sebastian’s skin, “And you’ve really come out of your shell since I met you. You really were deplorable to Chat Noir this afternoon…”

“He started it,  _ kitty _ ,” Sebastian murmured back, setting a sleepy Plagg on the counter curled around the wheel of camembert.

“I guess he did,” Adrien replied with a shrug. He pulled away from his boyfriend and put his hands in his pockets. “I can’t believe you were out and about today.”

“We were out of Mr. Dupain’s croissants,” Sebastian said, turning toward his cat-like boyfriend, “I told you I was going to be there today.”

Adrien’s smirk turned into a frown, “I know. I just can’t believe you were there  _ today _ , during the attack…”

Sebastian startled, looking up at Adrien, pupils dilating, “Oh.” Then, “I’ve never seen you truly fight. I mean, up close. It was… thrilling.”

“You could have been hurt, Seb…” Adrien said, and pushed past him. 

Sebastian followed him into their shared bedroom. “Well, how am I supposed to know when and where an akuma is going to hit? I may be a shut in, but not always. I need fresh air and exercise!”

Sebastian and Adrien had had little fights here and there, as was expected in any kind of relationship, but Chat Noir and akuma attacks were almost… taboo. Sebastian waited for Adrien’s reply, whether it was to change the subject, as he usually did, or to tell him he couldn’t go out at all. But why would Adrien do that? He was the friendliest person Sebastian had ever known, besides Marinette, or Veronique back in Stardew Valley.

Adrien was rummaging around in his bedside table. 

He smiled over at Sebastian, “You don’t. And Ladybug and Chat Noir will always be around to put things to right. Today just… made me remember something is all. I could have lost you, but… that’s why I’m Chat Noir. I just… worry. I get it from my mother.”

Sebastian nodded, relaxing his tightening body a little bit. “Oh.”

“And the fact that you resisted Chat Noir’s charms, even if he’s the same person as me, well…” Adrien now was clutching something in his hand, a little tiny peek of a small glittering chain showing. Sebastian stared at Adrien’s clutched hand, heart pounding.  _ No, it couldn’t be… _

Adrien smiled before opening up his hand.

A blue unicorn-horn shell, drilled through to put a simple chain, winked up at Sebastian and he let out a sharp breath. “When… when did you get that?”

Adrien laughed, “Actually, I knew the moment you made plans to come back to Paris with me that you were the one. The one I wanted to spend the rest of my days with. The one I loved with all my heart. The one I didn’t want to lose. So before I left I purchased this from the Mariner at the beach.”

“And you kept it?” Sebastian asked. “Why didn’t you give it to me sooner?”

Adrien’s smile faded, and he sighed, “I guess I got caught up in the move, and being back. But you being there with that akuma, even though you were inside, and Ladybug had it covered: It made me realize… I don’t want a life without you. So why not seal the deal?” he gripped the chain and let the pendant dangle like a mouse before the cat. “You know. Chat Noir is everyone else’s hero, but you are Chat Noir’s.”

Sebastian frowned, “What do you mean?”

Adrien smiled, “You sacrificed your comfort to come here, to be with me in Paris so that I could go back to being Chat Noir with Ladybug. So you saved Chat Noir by coming here.”

Sebastian flushed, “I.... I already told you. There was nothing for me in Stardew Valley. Paris would give me what Zuzu City could if I moved there, which was my plan before you came along.”

“Until I came along,” Adrien repeated, turning his attention back to the Mermaid Pendant. “So?” he asked, one eyebrow raising.

Sebastian took a moment, trying to make Adrien sweat a little with his dead-eyed stare, then, his whole face brightened, and he squeezed his eyes shut as tears made tracks down his cheeks. “Yes, you idiot,” he replied.

Adrien grinned like the cat who got the proverbial canary, and unclasped the chain, stepping up to his now fiance to put the chain around the other male’s neck. Once secured, Adrien stepped back and looked over his handiwork. “I love you, Sebastian. I think I always have.”

Sebastian flushed, “Yeah? I think I loved you from the very day I met Chat Noir, at least.”

Adrien shrugged, “Eh, everyone loves Chat Noir. But Chat Noir chose you, and so have I.”

Sebastian looked off to the side, still blushing.

Adrien grinned and stepped closer to his new fiance, wrapping his arms around Sebastian’s waist. Sebastian in turn wrapped his arms around Adrien’s shoulders. 

“You want to have the ceremony in Stardew Valley?” Adrien asked.

Sebastian perked up a little more, “Can we?”

“Of course,” Adrien replied. “I can fly out my friends and family, but your friends and family are already there, right? And doesn’t Mayor Lewis usually officiate weddings?”

Sebastian nodded. “You worry about getting your family and friends over there, and I’ll worry about everything else.”

“You got it,” Adrien said, kissing Sebastian’s hair. “I love you, Sebastian.”

Sebastian’s smile softened, “I love you, Adrien.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this, friends.
> 
> I swear I think in crossovers. Sorry!


End file.
